Barack Obama admits Donald Trump role in 'genuine tension' with Michelle

Former President Barack Obama, who left the Oval Office in 2017, recently indicated that his return to active politics is affecting his personal life. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Obama said that he has been pushed back into politics because of President Donald Trump’s actions, frustrating his wife and former First Lady, Michelle Obama. As per the report, President Trump’s "recklessness" pushed Obama to work in politics "more than I would have preferred."

"It does create a genuine tension in our household, and it frustrates her," Obama told The New Yorker, in the interview published on May 4. "She wants to see her husband easing up and spending more time with her, enjoying what remains of our lives. But there is a sense of obligation that I can’t quite shake when I see the foundation of our democracy being tested."

Addressing Trump's actions on 'The Late Show'

A day after the New Yorker article was published, Obama, during an appearance on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert', took several jabs at the Trump administration, after joking that Colbert could "run for president" as he would "perform significantly better than some folks that we've seen."

After Colbert suggested that President Trump appears to be weaponizing the country's criminal justice system to go after his adversaries, Obama said a president should never be able to tell the Attorney General to "go prosecuting" political rivals. "The idea is that the attorney general is the people’s lawyer, it's not the president's consigliere," the former president said. "You can't have a situation in which whoever's in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends." 

POTUS 'shouldn't have a bunch of side hustles' 

Obama also spoke out against mixing public service with personal business. He said Americans deserve leaders who don't "run side hustles" from the White House. "A good policy that I'd like to see followed is that the president of the United States shouldn't have a bunch of side hustles," Obama said. While he did not mention Trump directly, many have interpreted the statement as a direct reference to the controversy surrounding First Lady Melania Trump's documentary sponsorship and various Trump-branded merchandise being marketed during the campaign and presidency.

In terms of the U.S.'s recent military decisions, Obama told Colbert that a president, as commander in chief, is "responsible for directing our military," and should not "politicize" it. "There had been a whole set of norms that had been in place to ensure that you weren't trying to make that military loyal to you as opposed to the Constitution and the people of the United States. We're going to have to find mechanisms to restore that," he said.